Tire for vehicle-wheels.



PATENTED APR. 10, 1906-, J. L. HEWARD. 'TIRE FOR VEHICLE WHEELS.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 27, 1904.

I VENZ'OI? my ATTORNE rs.

UNITED srn rnfs PATENT OFFICE. JAMES LOOKWOOD HEWARD, OF CARDIFF, ENGLAND.

TIRE FOR VEHICLE-WHEELS.

Patented April 10, 1906.

Application and January 27,1904. Serial No. 190,763.

To all whom it m/(Ly concern.-

Be it known that I, JAMEs Looxwoon HEWARD, engineer, a subject of the King of Great Britain and Ireland, residing at 9 Beda road, Canton, Cardiff, in the county of Glamorgan, England, have invented certain new and 'useful Improvements in Tires for the Wheels of Cycles, Motors-Cars, andother Vehicles, of which the following is a specification. This invention relates to pneumatic tires,

and has for its'object to render such tires impenetrable',t. a, so as to prevent puncture thereoi and'for this urpose, according to my present invention,

employ a very thin spring-steel or other suitable metal band or ribbon, coiled s irally around and throughout the lengtho the inner tube, so as to completely sheath or inclose the latter within the width and, say,'about a five-thousandth of an. inch in thicknessfor more or less, as desired. Such very thin metal ribbon is advantageously given a spiral form or tendency in any suitable manneras, for instance, in

' manufacturing same by winding same while hot spirally on a mandrel. and at same time giving it, the pitch or spiral required, for example, so that the windings overlap each other aboutone-third of the width of the ribbon itself, and thus produce lapped winding or lapped-joint winding when in position around the inner air-tube. The man- 'drel used for the preliminary winding of the resilient'metal ribbon is of the'same cross- 4 which it is intended to section and radius .as the tire, so that after the operation has been completed and the ribbon thus formed has been hardened and tempered said ribbon assumes and permanently retains the shape of the tire upon e used.- The resultof this molding of the metalribbon while hot. on the mandrel is that the said ribbon has a "a light transverse curvature imparted thereto; but to be more accurate this curvature is at a slight forward angle with respect to the crosssection of the ribbon, because of the spiral winding of the latter, so that the ribbon conforms closely to the peripheral curvature of rim of wheel.

th in r ube, while the side edges of the ribbon are bent inwardl toward the latter and are thus prevented om acting as cutting edges, which would injurev the outer tube vor covering, 'or the pitch or s iral of the metal ribbon maybe such that W en in osition on the inner air-tube the. windings wil not overlap, as aforesaid, or overlap at all, in which event I then employ a second and separate metal ribbon, (similar to the first ribbon or suitable for the purpose,) which-iswound spirally over the first ribbon'in asimilar manner to the first ribbon i. 6., without overlapping or otherwise, but always so that the outerribbon breaks joint with the inner ribbon', andthus prevents the inner air-tube from being punctured, or more than two windings may be employed, desired, and when more than a single winding is employed the same may, if desired, be made of still thinner metal ribbons'sf The metal ribbon employed is tempered in any usual or suitable way, but alwaysso that the same is very resilient not only in itself,

wound form in thetire.

Referring to thqy'accom anying drawings, Figure 1 shows a length 0? the-metal ribbon in its spirally-wound form overlap ing itself about one-third of the width of t e ribbon,

'butalso when overlapping in its spirally-.

Fig. 2 is across-sectional view thereof. Fig."

3 is a view of a length of a complete tire on rim, suitable for cycles, parts of such tire being broken away to show, respectively, the

metal ribbon and the inner tube. Fig. 4 is a CI'OQSTSGCbIOIIfid view of said tire, and Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the innerair-tube with twospirally-wound ribbons. placed around the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate. corresponding-parts in the difierent figures of the drawings.

a is the spirally-wound metal-ribbon.

b is the inner air-tube, completely covered and protected by said metal ribbon.

c is the outer cover of the tire; d, ordinary The construction of the outer cover 0 and rim (2, and the'means employed for securing said cover to its-rim may be of" any character'suitablefor use in conjunction with my invention. For example. the wellknown clencher attachment or beaded edges, as shown in Fig. 4, may be employed. j

In Fig. 5 I have illustrated the application oftwo metal ribbons spirally coiled and the outer. ribbon" breaking joint with the.inner..

ribbon, the windings of the latter being indicated by the dotted lines m, and when employing this breakjoint plan I may use means to keep the position of the coils invariable to one another as, for example, I may employ studs or rivets or fasteners like the well-known split form of paper-fasteners,

which would be quite sufficient for my purpose.

The windings of the metal ribbon 0 upon or around the inner air-tube b may be effected as to clear the valve in any suitable manner.

The two ends of the spirally-wound metal ribbon a may be brought together and caused to overlap and, if desired, may be secured to bon spiral gether in any suitable manneras, for example, by brazing or riveting same together.

The com ressed air in the tube b acts as an elastic bacliingto the metal ribbon, which coiled spirally, as aforesaid, is elastic to outward pressure and the surface is impenetrable to puncture- 8. e., will not puncture from any ordinary cause.

Having now described my invention, What I clairnas new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the Unted States, is r A sheath for the inner tubes of pneumatic tires, com rising'a thin resilient metallic rib- Yy wound in the shape of a hollow ring, said ribbon being bent transversely to conform to the peripheral contour of the tire towhich it is applied. v 1

In witness whereof Ihave hereunto set my hand in presence of two witnesses.

a 8 ""JAMES- LOQKWOOD" HEWARD.

Witnesses:

ERNEST L. PHILLIP-s, ALEERT S. PHILLIPS. 

